In fiction, the behavior of autonomous robots is often governed by some variant of the so called “Three Laws of Robotics,” also called Asimov's Laws. For example, in such fictional accounts, a robot's basic programming may limit actions available to the robot based on whether such actions are likely to result in harm to a person. In some such fictional accounts, interpretation of the laws or larger implications of the laws are used as a plot element. For example, a robot may behave in manner that complies with the literal requirements of laws but that results in significant unintended consequences. Thus, the laws are obeyed, but the result is undesirable.
To date, robots have not achieved enough self-direction that simple over-arching rules, such as the Three Laws of Robotics, can be relied upon to govern their actions. Further, a more fundamental concern with allowing an individual robot or another autonomous agent device to police its own behavior is that the robot or autonomous agent device can be compromised in a manner that enables it to deviate from rules governing its behavior. As a simple example, a robot could be hacked in a manner that causes it to deviate from expected behavior. As another example, the robot's sensors could be fooled (e.g., by a faked global positioning system signal) in a manner that causes it to deviate from expected behavior. In either of these examples, the robot may perform actions specified by its code; however, the code has been altered or sensor data spoofed such that the robot nevertheless behaves in an unexpected and potentially harmful manner.